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Allan Sekula and Noël Burch: The Forgotten Space

The Forgotten Space (2010, 112 mins), an incisive and visually rich essay film directed by Allan Sekula and Noël Burch, investigates global maritime trade: visiting everyone from displaced farmers and villagers in Holland to underpaid truck drivers in Los Angeles and Filipino maids in China. Sekula and Burch offer a sobering portrait of workers’ conditions, the inhuman scale of sea trade and the secret lives of port cities. Allan Sekula is an artist, writer and photography theoretician based in Los Angeles, where he teaches at the California Institute of the Arts. Burch is a film theorist and a filmmaker who has directed over twenty films. He was co-founder and director of the Institut de Formation Cinèmatographique from 1967–71.

A panel discussion addressing The Forgotten Space and the issues it raises took place at Tate Modern on Tuesday 24 April 2012. Speakers included Allan Sekula, Noël Burch and Benjamin H.D. Buchloh, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Modern Art at Harvard University.

Allan Sekula and Noël Burch: The Forgotten Space - panel discussion

Tate Film presents inspiring films, videos, installations and performances made by artists and filmmakers who seek to challenge the conventions of the moving image. See the full Tate Film programme.